A configuration management database (CMDB) that stores configuration information relating to operation management of an Information Technology (IT) system in order to consolidate scattered data has been proposed recently. Hereafter, a configuration management database will be referred to as a CMDB.
A CMDB stores configuration items (CI) including configuration information (also known as attribute information) relating to servers and software of a management subject IT system, and relationship item information expressing relationships between the configuration items. Hereafter, a configuration item will be referred to as a CI and the relationship item information will be referred to as a Relationship. Further, an apparatus known as a federated configuration management database (FCMDB), which integrates various configuration information dispersed among a plurality of CMDBs has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-134005). Hereafter, a federated configuration management database will be referred to as an FCMDB.
An IT system manager (to be referred to as a manager hereafter) can easily grasp an overall configuration of the IT system, such as hardware maintenance operations and software installation states, by checking the CIs. The manager instructs retrieval software to retrieve a CI to be checked, or in other words a retrieval subject CI, from among the CIs stored in the FCMDB. Upon reception of the retrieval instruction, the retrieval software retrieves the retrieval subject CI from the CIs stored in the FCMDB, and returns the retrieved CI to the manager as a retrieval result.
When a scale of a management subject IT system increases, the number of CIs stored in the FCMDB also increases such that relationships between the CIs extend over a plurality of stages. As a result, a CI retrieval processing time increases, leading to an increase in stress on the manager. It is therefore desirable to shorten the retrieval processing time.